Really, I don’t know what is happening with the popularity of bacon, but not long ago I went to a wedding party and they served — I am not kidding — bacon as an hors d’oeuvre. Not bacon-wrapped scallops or any other bacon-wrapped goodies, but bacon.
Bacon is so popular that Wendy’s announced recently that it is upgrading the quality of the bacon it uses on some sandwiches, even if it means charging more.
Now, we find that the price of bacon is rising. Bacon prices are up a dollar a pound, according to the Department of Agriculture, and they might rise further. NPR says: “The price of pork bellies is up nearly 50 percent since June. The reason? U.S. farmers are raising fewer hogs and shipping more of them to customers overseas.”
” ‘What you have with bacon is what economists call inelastic demand, meaning it doesn’t vary much,’ said Chris Hurt, a livestock economist at Purdue University in West Lafayette. ‘If a person wants a BLT sandwich and likes that in summer when their patio tomatoes come on, then it doesn’t make a difference if bacon is $2 a pound or $6 a pound. They’re going to go out and buy it. When it’s in short supply and a lot of people want it, they’ll pay a higher price.’ “
